U.S. Air Force Launches 'Ringleader' Sensor Fusion Exercise

The new exercise aims to test the military's ability to rapidly fuse data from a vast array of sensors to support battle management.

Published on Feb. 27, 2026

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The U.S. Air Force is launching a new series of exercises called 'Ringleader' to test its ability to rapidly fuse data from a growing number of military and intelligence sensors, including satellites, drones, and aircraft. The goal is to help speed up the 'kill chain' process of detecting, identifying, tracking, and destroying targets. The exercises will leverage the Air Force's Distributed Common Ground System to ensure global connectivity to the various sensors involved.

Why it matters

As the number of military and intelligence sensors continues to proliferate across domains, the Pentagon needs to prove it can rapidly integrate and make sense of all that data to support real-time decision-making for warfighters. The Ringleader exercises are a key step in developing the Department of the Air Force's Battle Network, a system-of-systems infrastructure aimed at fusing sensor data to enable faster targeting and engagement.

The details

The Ringleader exercises will be the Air Force's first attempt to gather and integrate data from its vast array of sensors, as well as data from other military services, commercial platforms, and the intelligence community. The experiments will test the service's ability to pull live data from on-orbit satellites, drones, and aircraft, and then fuse that data to support operations like tracking moving targets. A key component will be the Air Force's Distributed Common Ground System, which has been used for over two decades to gather and process data from various platforms to create actionable intelligence.

  • The Ringleader exercises will launch in 2026.
  • The Air Force plans to demonstrate an operational Golden Dome missile defense capability that could be used against 'credible threats' by 2028.

The players

Troy Meink

The Air Force Secretary who announced the Ringleader exercises.

Chance Saltzman

The U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations who described Ringleader as a collaborative effort between the Air Force and Space Force.

Michael Guetlein

The Pentagon's lead acquisition officer for the Golden Dome missile defense architecture, which the Ringleader findings could inform.

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What they’re saying

“Over the last few years, we've built out the necessary software, hardware and network infrastructure. Now it's time to test them.”

— Troy Meink, Air Force Secretary (aviationweek.com)

“We haven't collected this kind of data from a global perspective, with this level of volume of data, and turned it into rapid battle management decisions.”

— Chance Saltzman, U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations (aviationweek.com)

What’s next

The Ringleader exercises will launch in 2026 as the Air Force works to migrate its moving-target-indication capabilities to spacecraft from air platforms. The findings from Ringleader could also inform the development of the Pentagon's Golden Dome missile defense architecture, which aims to deliver an integrated command-and-control system by the summer of 2027.

The takeaway

The Ringleader exercises represent a critical step in the U.S. military's efforts to harness the growing volume of sensor data from satellites, drones, aircraft, and other platforms to enable faster and more effective decision-making for warfighters. As the number of sensors continues to proliferate, the ability to rapidly fuse and make sense of that data will be essential for maintaining military superiority.